With tragedies like the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., law enforcement is realizing there’s an increased need for understanding mental illness.

This week, Tri-State police officers and first responders are spending 40 hours in intense training to learn more about how to deal with the complex issue.

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“We tend to be a society where a tragedy happens and as things unfold we find out there were things maybe we could do differently,” said Liz Atwell from Mental Health America. Atwell says the training has been available since the late 1990s, but has gotten increasingly more pressing in light of recent events.

Part of the training involves officers and first responders sitting down with those who suffer from mental illness to gain a better understanding of the symptoms and the illness.

Courtenay Gamber, a firefighter from Blue Ash, spent time with Ken Jones, who suffers from bipolar affective disorder.

Jones said first responders can “make or break” the outcome in tense situations with mental illness. He says responding with understanding rather than physical force often makes a big difference.

Gamber realizes she now has a very important tool to help keep herself and the citizens she serves safe, a deeper understanding of how to respond to mental illness. “If we're not able to calm them down or be able to communicate with them and listen to them, then they would go a route to where we couldn't control them, more harm to them and other people,” she said.

Gamber is one of the first firefighters in the Tri-state to receive the training. She says as a paramedic, she deals with mental illness often and feels much more prepared to deal with it now.

This fall, there will be a special session of this training for campus police officers.